


Love, Coping and Liars

by dhpanya10



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Family, Friendship, Love, lying to oneself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28337850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dhpanya10/pseuds/dhpanya10
Summary: After the events at King Ben's coronation, all of the four are struggling to adjust in a new world. After a night terror, Mal and Carlos have a heart-to-heart on love, coping, leading and lying to oneself.
Relationships: Mal & Carlos de Vil
Kudos: 11





	Love, Coping and Liars

Mal tossed and turned on her bed, blonde hair stuck to the back of her head, murmuring absent words.

_"Your father –" Maleficent hissed. "Was a no-good peasant, who couldn't deal with having a child."_

_Mal swallowed, but did her best not to show her fear, or her objections, since Lord Hades, she knew, was the most feared villain on the Isle, and obviously not a peasant. "Yes Mom." She said quietly instead._

_"Now. . ." She continued. "They've found the one who tried to pickpocket you." Mal's eyes widened as a man was dragged into the room. "Knuckleheads!" Her mom's henchmen stepped to the side. "Your favourite knife, Mal." She produced it, a wicked sharp edge to the silver handle made it beautiful. "Go on, then." She spread her hands towards the poor man, who fell to his knees._

_Mal's grip on the knife tightened. Was her mother actually asking her to….? "Do it!" Maleficent hissed, but Mal still stood still, forcing her body not to tremble. "Malinda Bertha if you do not do it yourself, I will, and every injury inflicted upon him will be visited on you!"_

_She was caught between the devil and the dark sea. But after the incident with Uma, she'd rather the devil than the sea. And you couldn't survive on the Isle with a clear conscience and not knowing how to fight. . . Mal stepped forward and pressed the knife into his arm, and the man's scream echoed throughout the room—_

And through her heavy breathing as she woke up in her dorm, next to Evie on the giant pushed together bed. Mal jolted up and hurried to her bag, pulling the zipper open with trembling hands.

Her once favourite knife glinted, a rust red blood stain still on the blade and she held it tightly, pinpricks of blood appearing on her fingers.

The door to their dorm swung open, and she dropped it, doubling back to her bed.

It's Jay and Carlos. Just them. Her gang.

Her breathing still doesn't slow.

"Hey, sorry we're late." Jay's voice rumbles through. "We had to get Doug distracted – hey, Mal, what happened?"

Evie wakes up in the resulting rush to her. "Mal? How did you get hurt?"

And Mal knows that despite this not holding a candle to the injuries they got on the Isle, her gang's remembering when one of them used to turn up bloody, broken and bruised in the middle of the night, and she can't let them panic. "I'm fine. I guess I must've hit something sharp. I don't know what happened."

She lied, and lied and lied, to protect them, her gang.

Evie bandaged up Mal's hand from scraps of cloth, and the four of them lay in bed, and Carlos listened as Jay and Evie's breath evened out. Mal was troubled, though. He'd known that the second he'd seen her face and heard her frantic breathing. He turned towards the girl on his left. "Mal?"

"Yes, Carlos?" She snapped, but he could see through her shield in the way he couldn't seven years ago, and he wasn't afraid of her.

"Do you think that because we didn't know what the words 'friends' or 'love' meant we're … weird?"

Her eyes softened. Sometimes when he looked at her he could still see ten-year-old Mal with a knife spinning in her hand, a smirk curling at her lips and a protective glint in her eye declaring to Freddy and Zevon and Uma that "He's mine".

"Do you think that the fact that we get night terrors unless we sleep next to or near one another is weird?"

He shook his head. "No. We've – we've been through the worst of our lives together. It's only fair we deal with this together too."

She smiled at him, and all his worries dissipated. He remembered how when he'd still been new in the gang and insecure and terrified that he'd be kicked out because Mal and Jay had been friends since forever and Mal and Evie were girls together and best friends and Jay and Evie were into clothes and fancy moves he'd be left behind, that there wasn't space for him. He remembered how after a gang fight when the three had been quietly talking strategy he'd skulked off with his wounds and Mal had come, gently lifting his arm to clean his wound and looked him in the eye as if seeing right through him and said "We're a gang. We don't leave each other behind."

"There you go then." She remained silent for a second. "We're all a product of circumstances. Maybe if Ben had been raised at the Isle, he'd be like you – a softer villain but still surviving."

Carlos reached out and wound a tendril of Mal's hair around his finger. To his surprise, she leaned forward and let him. Noting his surprise (this was Mal, she saw everything) she smirked. "Why are you-?"

"We all have a way of coping," She said gently. "Evie likes to cover her face with make up and pretend to be dumb so that nobody can see the real her and underestimate her while she struggles with self-esteem. Jay likes to fidget and fight. You, on the other hand, like hair." Her smirk widened. "And petting Dude. Who would've thought?"

"How do you?" Carlos asked with wide eyes. He had noticed that Jay liked to fidget and Evie pretended to be dumb, but. . .

"You're mine," Mal said with devastating simplicity. "I'd be a pretty bad leader if I didn't know anything about my gang."

Carlos swallowed. "Hey, Mal? Do – do you think you know what love is yet?" There was no reply. Mal's light eyes were looking at him with the same gaze. "Because, I think I love you." She remained calm, but he panicked. "I mean, we've known each other seven years and you're my leader, and I'd do anything for you, but you're also my best friend and—"

"Carlos," She said. "It's alright. I get it." She shrugged, as Carlos huffed a breath. "Evie said it to me too, today morning. I think it's because Jay said it to her couple of days back – you know how Jay is, flippant with emotions. He just threw out that phrase all the Borea- Auradon kids use," She corrected herself. "That 'that's why I love you'. And Evie just gaped while he ran."

"Huh," Carlos said mildly. "So that's why he was so irritable that day."

"Hey, C?" Mal said suddenly, a couple minutes later. "I think I love you too, actually." Carlos blinked and then gaped. He hadn't thought Mal would actually—he would've taken a bet that she'd say it first to Jay or Evie— "I can hear your mind going a thousand miles." Mal chuckled. "But I guess we have for years."

"Yeah." Carlos said thoughtfully. "You know, they call gangs which are more on affection than alliance friends here, but I don't think we're friends."

"Really?" Mal stated. All of her questions were like that – people on the Isle didn't do questions, and as the biggest leader Mal had to be forceful and direct.

"No, friends are like – the way Lonnie or Jane are to us?" He said. "And Ben to Jay, Evie and me. But we've gone through so much together and had each other's backs and fought together and treated each other's wounds. We're—"

"Family." Mal completed, shifting, and the bandage on her hand shifted too.

Carlos' eyes went to it. "Yes," He breathed. "Family. And Mal, family doesn't lie to each other." He reached out and took her hand. She froze. "We've all got our own coping mechanisms." He repeated her. "I've never known yours. But pain always gets more to you." She was silent for a few moments, and suddenly Carlos felt a fear he hadn't for years.

"You're right," She said finally, and caught the look on his face. "Are you serious? We're family. I'm not going to kick you out just because you questioned me once." She sighed. "Nightmare. Memory, actually. It's fine. I'm fine."

"You may be my leader and my best friend, but I'm here for you, just like you've always been for me." He murmured, almost asleep. "You don't need to lie to yourself. My leader Mal's so strong she can face everything and not lie to herself that she's fine. Or that blonde hair suits her."

Mal let out a choked-out chuckle. "It does look totally not me, doesn't it?" She brushed her hand against his hair as he buried his face in her shoulder. "Nasty dreams, lil C."

"Night, Mal." He murmured. And as they fell asleep the four of them gravitated towards one another, Jay's arm resting on Evie's waist, he and Mal on the edges for protection, Carlos curved into Mal, his hand tangled in Evie's curls, the Rotten Four - family forever.


End file.
